I saw some boots advertised in Angling Times and decided to take a chance, a few cold and wet sessions and many more to come have spurred me into action. They seemed like a bargain, £9.99 from Used Tackle in Nottingham 01159 631777 and I picked them up from the courier today.
So, there I sat in my dinning roon with my brand new Conquest Moon Boots on and what did i think? Well the removable fleece inner boots seem quite snug and theres a thick insulating insole to keep you off the cold ground so all well so far. Looking at the actual boots themselves and I'm not so sure, the rubber of the boot seems really thin,soft and without much shape. I could be wrong but I think where the upper meets the heavily moulded sole is a definite candidate fot splitting. I reckon their life is going to be measured in sessions rather than seasons but hey what do you expect for a tenner?
I'll let you know.
Monday, 19 November 2007
Willow Lakes
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Back in early october I managed a trip to Willow lakes, its a venue I quite enjoy because of the high likelyhood of getting a run which sort of restores my confidence after some knocks. I arrived nice and early in the hope of getting a good swim and being set up and ready for first light. Finding the gates locked was the first of many surprises of the day so I decided to get some sleep ready for them opening at 7.
Once on the bank I made my way to the far bank of the match lake and positioned myself mid way along the bank. The sky was like lead and the rain fell relentlessly so up went the brolly! Next my new Warrior rods and new Baitrunners went on my new(ish) pod. I opted for shortish hook lengths on semi fixed leads attached with corda safety clips on both rods. The hook lengths attached via a loop to a quick release clip rather than a swivle, this allows PVA stockings to be threaded on and sit just above the hook bait. These can be tied up prior to reeling in to save time.
I cast both rods into the gully short of the bar which runs down the centre of the lake seperated by 30m and settled down to wait. And still it rained!
It didnt take long before the left hand rod screamed off, I reached down and struck........ and that was my first mistake! Having never used a bait runner before I had forgotton to disengage the free spool, I was gutted to see the resulting birds nest. Luckily I managed to untangle the mess and was amazed to find the fish still on!After a short scrap a small mirror of about 6lb was in the net.
Frustratingly the next 4 runs , all on the left hand rod, all seemed to slip the hook after a few seconds. A switch to inline leads and fresh hook lengths saw the next 3 runs result in 3 fish on the bank, the best being a common of 11lb 6oz. Not bad considering I was the only one who seemed to be on the fish, even stranger is that all 8 runs came to the same rod. Was I landing on someone elses bait from a previous session?
About 3 in the afternoon the skys cleared and the temperature plumeted and runs seemed to stop immeadiately.
in an attempt to more accurate with my casting I'd wrapped small pieces of electrial tape around the line just beyond the tip ring when I'd initially cast but not wound down so evry cast could be feathered down when I heard the tape going through the rings. Sounds perfect in theory but in practice I found that when playing a fish on a taught line the tape catches on the rings and gets pushed down the line.
So what did i learn? Well firstly I need a better shelter as my feet got soaked sticking out of my brolly, anyone got a secondhand bivvy for sale??!! Secondly the tape trick doesnt work, you can never be 100% sure the tape stays where you put it. I'm considering painting the line with tipex, does anyone know of any reasons why this isnt a good idea for nylon? And finally the right hand rod stayed more or less silent all day, I should have experimented with different positions, rigs and baits to bring about a result.
A great day and a good test for the new gear
Saturday, 8 September 2007
Getting there
Tuesday night saw me back on the Trent. It was a lovely evening and I had already decided to dedicate all my time and attention on the carp rods leaving the float rod at home. I baited 2 areas with hemp and corn and placed a halibut pellet hook bait over each. Recasting every hour or so with a topped up feeder to keep the bait going in. An open ended feeder with small pellet and ground bait plugs was the method used to introduce the feed and keep cost down. Basically for duration of the short evening session the swingers failed to move. Now the doubts crept in - are there any fish here or do they just pass through, am I on a working bait, is my bite indication correct? The local canoeing club didnt help, they must have passed in both directions within inches of my rod tips. Fishless and frustrated I packed up.
Thursday saw my return to the river, yeah I know..... another early finish! Back out with the same set up and baits. About 7 pm my mate Pete rang and as is always the case while I'm in conversation the downstream indicator crept up, phone in one hand and rod in the other I missed it completely. 'Have you only got pellet?' he asked. 'Afraid so' I replied. I could see his reasoning, if pellet isn't working try soming else.
Shortly afterwards I went back to the van to get some more pellet feed, while rumaging around for the pellet my hand came out with a tin of corn I didnt know I had. Back on the rods I changed the up stream rod to 2 rubber grains of corn on the hair and replaced the pellet feed with corn. A few twitches occured but nothing to change my lack of optimism. Aroud 9 pm I was seriously thinking about packing up when at last the upstream rod swinger dropped right back and I hit it, the feeling of a series of thumps on the other end was such a relief. The fish kited down stream then held its ground before kiting back upstream again. I quickly slipped the net under the still unseen fish, pulled back the mesh expecting to see a small carp, barbel or reasonable chub and was surprised to see a large bream. Yes, a bream which actually fought! The hook had come out in the net and he looked about 3 to 4lb. I quickly recast and a a few minutes latter the same rod was off again, this a small bream about a pound had taken the bait.
Now it really was time to leave and as I did so I pondered the lessons learnt.
1. Dont place all your bait eggs in one basket unless youre confident in the bait.
2. Accurate and regular feeding is required. Although I was fishing fairly close in a piece of tape on the main line would have gaurenteed the same spot every time
3. Dont fish the Trent embankment on a tuesdat night, you'll never compete with the canoes!
I do feel I'm getting closer to the carp, bream take the same baits from the same swims as carp and ussually where theres bream the carp wont be far away. I also have more faith in my set up, though maybe the pellet hook bait might be back on the subs bench.
Thursday saw my return to the river, yeah I know..... another early finish! Back out with the same set up and baits. About 7 pm my mate Pete rang and as is always the case while I'm in conversation the downstream indicator crept up, phone in one hand and rod in the other I missed it completely. 'Have you only got pellet?' he asked. 'Afraid so' I replied. I could see his reasoning, if pellet isn't working try soming else.
Shortly afterwards I went back to the van to get some more pellet feed, while rumaging around for the pellet my hand came out with a tin of corn I didnt know I had. Back on the rods I changed the up stream rod to 2 rubber grains of corn on the hair and replaced the pellet feed with corn. A few twitches occured but nothing to change my lack of optimism. Aroud 9 pm I was seriously thinking about packing up when at last the upstream rod swinger dropped right back and I hit it, the feeling of a series of thumps on the other end was such a relief. The fish kited down stream then held its ground before kiting back upstream again. I quickly slipped the net under the still unseen fish, pulled back the mesh expecting to see a small carp, barbel or reasonable chub and was surprised to see a large bream. Yes, a bream which actually fought! The hook had come out in the net and he looked about 3 to 4lb. I quickly recast and a a few minutes latter the same rod was off again, this a small bream about a pound had taken the bait.
Now it really was time to leave and as I did so I pondered the lessons learnt.
1. Dont place all your bait eggs in one basket unless youre confident in the bait.
2. Accurate and regular feeding is required. Although I was fishing fairly close in a piece of tape on the main line would have gaurenteed the same spot every time
3. Dont fish the Trent embankment on a tuesdat night, you'll never compete with the canoes!
I do feel I'm getting closer to the carp, bream take the same baits from the same swims as carp and ussually where theres bream the carp wont be far away. I also have more faith in my set up, though maybe the pellet hook bait might be back on the subs bench.
Friday, 24 August 2007
River Trent
My good friend Pete happened to mention last time we were talking how my posts were mainly made up of what I wanted to catch but didn't. So this tiime Ive tried hard not to disapoint and I've struggled again!
Its long been my ambition to catch a river carp as I believe these are as close to wild carp as we're likely to catch. So it was back to the river Trent to try my luck. Just upstream from trent bridge is a stretch known as the steps, its a popular place to feed the swans, ducks and geese and its my theory that the carp cruise up and down the stepped banks looking for food.
I set up a pair of carp rods but struggled to get a bank stick in but finally managed to get a single rest wedged in. I kept my rod tips high to keep as much line as possible out of the water and this is where i met my second problem. It would seem that its not only the carp that cruise up and down the steps but also the swans. I'm not sure what the Nottingham swans get upto but they all seem to have bad sight, the few that did spot the rod tips certainly didnt see line and ploughed straight through them. Twice I had hairy moments where the birds stripped line from the reels. Those that know me know my views on these bad tempered vain overgrown ducks and thursday evening did nothing to change my mind!
I was fishing 14mm pellets on one rode and rubber corn on the other and pva bagging small pellet, corn and dry ground bait. Needless to say with the few hours I had, the learning curve to climb and my dubious skills another blank was the only possible outcome!
I did however come to some valuable conclusions for next time
1. I need a rod pod (and now have one!) to have the adjustability on those concrete steps and other solid pegs like Farlows complex.
2. For peace of mind and so I dont have to usher every swan around the lines I'll fish with the rod tips submerged. Good job I now have a pod isnt it!
3. To save money on pva, open ended feeders filled with small pellet and corn will deliver the freebies.
4. I'll stick to the margins as this is where the food the carp are looking for is found, maybe I was casting over their heads
All sounds simple huh?!
The one saving grace was my float rod and stick float, double maggot on a 16 hook. I managed a fairly regular stream of small roach and perch, nothing huge but enough to keep a smile on my face.
Sorry Pete but I'm afraid the news isnt great. Maybe next time.......
Its long been my ambition to catch a river carp as I believe these are as close to wild carp as we're likely to catch. So it was back to the river Trent to try my luck. Just upstream from trent bridge is a stretch known as the steps, its a popular place to feed the swans, ducks and geese and its my theory that the carp cruise up and down the stepped banks looking for food.
I set up a pair of carp rods but struggled to get a bank stick in but finally managed to get a single rest wedged in. I kept my rod tips high to keep as much line as possible out of the water and this is where i met my second problem. It would seem that its not only the carp that cruise up and down the steps but also the swans. I'm not sure what the Nottingham swans get upto but they all seem to have bad sight, the few that did spot the rod tips certainly didnt see line and ploughed straight through them. Twice I had hairy moments where the birds stripped line from the reels. Those that know me know my views on these bad tempered vain overgrown ducks and thursday evening did nothing to change my mind!
I was fishing 14mm pellets on one rode and rubber corn on the other and pva bagging small pellet, corn and dry ground bait. Needless to say with the few hours I had, the learning curve to climb and my dubious skills another blank was the only possible outcome!
I did however come to some valuable conclusions for next time
1. I need a rod pod (and now have one!) to have the adjustability on those concrete steps and other solid pegs like Farlows complex.
2. For peace of mind and so I dont have to usher every swan around the lines I'll fish with the rod tips submerged. Good job I now have a pod isnt it!
3. To save money on pva, open ended feeders filled with small pellet and corn will deliver the freebies.
4. I'll stick to the margins as this is where the food the carp are looking for is found, maybe I was casting over their heads
All sounds simple huh?!
The one saving grace was my float rod and stick float, double maggot on a 16 hook. I managed a fairly regular stream of small roach and perch, nothing huge but enough to keep a smile on my face.
Sorry Pete but I'm afraid the news isnt great. Maybe next time.......
Sunday, 29 July 2007
Chasing carp
Work is a bit thin on the ground at the moment which apart from the obvious financial drawbacks means its good news for fishing.
Last week I hit my local venue just after dawn, I arrived to find that I had the whole place to myself and was supremely confident. I picked a spot with a short cast tight against a weed bed and the second rod walked down and placed in front of a bed of reeds. Both rods were armed with small PVA mesh bags and surounded by a bed of pellet and broken boilies. I've recently switched from placing the lead and hook link into a bag along with the freebies to a tube and stocking arangement. The larger bags I found floated too long and melted on or near the surface dropping their contents over a larger area. The new ( to me ) system is smaller in volume and sinks faster. My only reservation is I'm not confident that merely hooking the bag is secure enough for anything more than a gentle lob, hence I use a small piece of PVA tape to secure the bag to the lead then pass the hook into the mesh bag.
So with Mainline active 8 and halibut pellets I went to work! Other than the odd twitch against the weed bed my rods stayed silent untill about 3 pm when off went the weed bed rod. At first I thought I'd missed the run untill I saw a flash of silver and a bream rolled just under the surface. The venue does quite well for bream and many of the old fish reach double figures athough this one was somewhere around 3lb. And that was that for the day.
I'm fairly sure that it was just a case of no fish in my swim as untill I was nearly ready to pack up there was no sign of a carp anywhere near my baits and certainly no line bites.
If the lack of work persists then I'll be back on wednesday for another go only this time I'm going to fish black eyed beans on one of the rods, I remember 2 very good friends of mine doing very well on the venue with them albeit nearly 20 years ago.
We'll see!!!
Last week I hit my local venue just after dawn, I arrived to find that I had the whole place to myself and was supremely confident. I picked a spot with a short cast tight against a weed bed and the second rod walked down and placed in front of a bed of reeds. Both rods were armed with small PVA mesh bags and surounded by a bed of pellet and broken boilies. I've recently switched from placing the lead and hook link into a bag along with the freebies to a tube and stocking arangement. The larger bags I found floated too long and melted on or near the surface dropping their contents over a larger area. The new ( to me ) system is smaller in volume and sinks faster. My only reservation is I'm not confident that merely hooking the bag is secure enough for anything more than a gentle lob, hence I use a small piece of PVA tape to secure the bag to the lead then pass the hook into the mesh bag.
So with Mainline active 8 and halibut pellets I went to work! Other than the odd twitch against the weed bed my rods stayed silent untill about 3 pm when off went the weed bed rod. At first I thought I'd missed the run untill I saw a flash of silver and a bream rolled just under the surface. The venue does quite well for bream and many of the old fish reach double figures athough this one was somewhere around 3lb. And that was that for the day.
I'm fairly sure that it was just a case of no fish in my swim as untill I was nearly ready to pack up there was no sign of a carp anywhere near my baits and certainly no line bites.
If the lack of work persists then I'll be back on wednesday for another go only this time I'm going to fish black eyed beans on one of the rods, I remember 2 very good friends of mine doing very well on the venue with them albeit nearly 20 years ago.
We'll see!!!
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